"It's Okay to be Different" by Todd Parr Writing Activity

During the first week of school, one of my favorite books to read aloud is It’s Okay to be Different. Todd Parr does a great job of helping children understand that no two people are exactly alike and it is ok to be yourself. I want everyone to feel welcome in our classroom and use this as an opportunity to build connections. I focus on new students coming from new places and discuss our life skills and SPED kids in our class.

After we read the book, I have the class participate in a writing activity. We brainstorm together different ways people are different. It can be physical differences or different interests or fears. I record and number all of the students answers on the board. I find it helpful to number the sentences for students to refer to later when they ask me the famous, “Which one says..?”.

Before I allow my students to work independently, we discuss writing expectations. Neat handwriting, finger sized spaces, punctuation, and how illustrations should match their story. This is a great beginning of the year indicator. I then have my students write their sentences and then draw the picture. I collect the pictures to display outside our classroom before putting them in our class book.